Occlusion-Based Cooperative Transport with a Swarm of Miniature Mobile Robots

Abstract

This paper proposes a strategy for transporting a large object to a goal using a large number of mobile robots that are significantly smaller than the object. The robots only push the object at positions where the direct line of sight to the goal is occluded by the object. This strategy is fully decentralized and requires neither explicit communication nor specific manipulation mechanisms. We prove that it can transport any convex object in a planar environment. We implement this strategy on the e-puck robotic platform and present systematic experiments with a group of 20 e-pucks transporting three objects of different shapes. The objects were successfully transported to the goal in 43 out of 45 trials. When using a mobile goal, teleoperated by a human, the object could be navigated through an environment with obstacles. We also tested the strategy in a 3-D environment using physics-based computer simulation. Due to its simplicity, the transport strategy is particularly suited for implementation on microscale robotic systems.

Communication Within Multi-FSM Based Robotic Systems

“…In robotics, there is a vast body of literature dealing with cooperation using implicit communication, especially stigmergy. For example [4] presents a schema based control of a multi-robot system used for common object retrieval, [81] describes robots communicating using sensors for detecting infrared radiation reflected by the environment, [87] presents robots communicating using traction forces, [25] describes robots communicating indirectly using on-board visual sensing, whilst [20] reports on the system composed of 20 e-puck robots pushing three different objects based on inputs from infrared proximity sensors, [89] describes a multi-robot system where individual robots use an adaptive behaviour selection strategy based on sensoric information about the location of the transferred object and the other robots, [95] presents multi-robot box pushing based on the detection of the motions of the translocated box. On the one hand the examples of implicit communication are abundant in the literature and on the other hand this form of communication does not influence the system specification from the point of view of communication, as it is realised by the perception subsystem.…”

Variable structure robot control systems: The RAPP approach

“…In the case of stigmergy the robots can sense the changes in the environment or observe of the actions of other robots (from the point of view of the observer in this case other robots are treated as part of its environment). For example [35] describes robots communicating using infrared sensors, [54] presents robots communicating using traction forces, [55] describes robots communicating indirectly using on-board visual sensing, while [56] reports on the system composed of 20 e-puck robots pushing three different objects based on inputs from infrared proximity sensors.…”

“…Tight cooperation results when the effectors are coupled directly or indirectly (through an object, possibly even a virtual object), e.g. two manipulators transferring a single rigid object together over a specified trajectory [40,47], object-pushing task [48,56,36], two rovers carrying a beam fixed to them [51], several quadrocopters flying in a specified formation [41,37,57]. Obviously transfer of a flexible o flimsy object also fall into that category, e.g.…”

Using a Type-2 Neural Fuzzy Controller for Navigation Control of Evolutionary Robots

“…In recent years, the control of mobile robots has been widely used in several applications for solving many problems, such as exploration of unknown environments, object handling, and navigation. (1)(2)(3) Navigation control is crucial in mobile robot-based technologies, and its design has become an indispensable research topic.…”